Laboratório de Neuroquímica e Psicofarmacologia, Departamento de Biologia Celular e Molecular, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Celular e Molecular, Faculdade de Biociências, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul. Avenida Ipiranga, 6681, 90619-900, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2011 Mar 30;35(2):561-7. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2010.12.018. Epub 2010 Dec 25.
Zebrafish (Danio rerio) have emerged as a promising model organism to study development, toxicology, pharmacology, and neuroscience, among other areas. Despite the increasing number of studies using zebrafish, behavioral studies with this species are still elementary when compared to rodents. The aim of this study was to develop a model of unpredictable chronic stress (UCS) in zebrafish. We evaluated the effects of UCS protocol during 7 or 14 days on behavioral and physiological parameters. The effects of stress were evaluated in relation to anxiety and exploratory behavior, memory, expression of corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF) and glucocorticoid receptor (GR), and cortisol levels. As expected, UCS protocol increased the anxiety levels, impaired cognitive function, and increased CRF while decreased GR expression. Moreover, zebrafish submitted to 7 or 14 days of UCS protocol presented increased cortisol levels. The protocol developed here is a complementary model for studying the neurobiology and the effects of chronic stress in behavioral and physiological parameters. In addition, this protocol is less time consuming than standard rodent models commonly used to study chronic stress. These results confirm UCS in zebrafish as an adequate model to preclinical studies of stress, although further studies are warranted to determine its predictive validity.
斑马鱼（Danio rerio）已成为研究发育、毒理学、药理学和神经科学等领域的有前途的模式生物。尽管越来越多的研究使用斑马鱼，但与啮齿动物相比，这种鱼类的行为研究仍然处于初级阶段。本研究旨在建立斑马鱼不可预测性慢性应激（UCS）模型。我们评估了 UCS 方案在 7 或 14 天内对行为和生理参数的影响。应激的影响与焦虑和探索行为、记忆、促肾上腺皮质释放因子（CRF）和糖皮质激素受体（GR）的表达以及皮质醇水平有关。正如预期的那样，UCS 方案增加了焦虑水平、损害了认知功能并增加了 CRF，同时降低了 GR 的表达。此外，接受 7 或 14 天 UCS 方案的斑马鱼皮质醇水平升高。这里开发的方案是研究慢性应激对行为和生理参数的神经生物学和影响的补充模型。此外，该方案比常用于研究慢性应激的标准啮齿动物模型耗时更少。这些结果证实了斑马鱼的 UCS 是应激的临床前研究的合适模型，尽管需要进一步研究来确定其预测有效性。
